That's right, the red army had women in actual combat roles during World War II. Often those women were snipers. So many women reenactors who want to "bust some caps" will portray Russian soldiers.

And yes you guessed it, this phenomena has been turned into a wonderful photo op. Months ago, my friend Dorian told me about the upcoming photoshoot that he was hosting. When the day arrived, I eagerly packed up my cameras and made the drive. A couple of hours later, I arrived at Dorian's neighborhood and searched for the correct house. Across the street from an elementary school, I spotted a promising sign.

Dorian

Dorian collects, buys, sells, and even creates some repro Russian militaria. So for this shoot he brought an entire trailer filled with uniforms on racks. Additional crates were strewn in the driveway full of shoes, boots, insignia, and weaponry.

Matt

Apparently Matt travelled all the way from Vienna Va to supply the shoot with proper weapons. This photoshoot provided the most props, not to mention the best props I've ever seen, bar none.

The only drawback was that so far, there were no models. But before long, Ariel showed up.

Since she was the first woman to arrive, the photographers still outnumbered the models, ...well model, by about four or five to one, but at least we could take pictures now. And we did plenty of that. Gregory showed up with his movie camera, and staged a scenario in which Ariel sneak attacked a German soldier (also known as Bryce).

There are a lot of photographers that shoot wedding after wedding until they can't stand the sight of a white dress. Well alright, maybe *they* don't get jaded, but I certainly would. I prefer shoots like this one, everyone looked great! Ok, it *was* North Carolina and not Vladivostok, but hey it was *December*.In some locations thats a cold month, so it counts ...right?